1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improvement in imparting indicia to a laminate material and in one aspect to the method of and apparatus for forming a liner, and the resulting liner for containers of consumable substances having a distinctive design or logo thereon.
2. Description of the Prior Art
This invention relates to an improvement in the art of forming a tamper-resistant seal for a container and in one aspect relates to a method of embossing the facing of a closure liner or barrier sealed on a container such that it can readily be determined whether or not the barrier is an original barrier placed on the container by the packaging company. The barrier in the instant invention is adhered to the container about the opening thereof and is covered by a removable cap having a gasket formed from the closure liner backing.
It is well known in the art to utilize a closure liner material which in the presence of radiation will form a rupturable seal about the opening on a plastic or glass container. Upon removal of the cap, separation between the laminate material comprising the pulpboard which is adhered in the cap and the laminate structure which is adhered to the bottle is well known in the art. This material however may be obtained and applied by one other than the original packager of the product contained within the container. Even if the liner material is preprinted with indicia it is possible that liner stock used on a larger container can be cut to replace a preprinted liner on a smaller bottle. It is thus desirable, and in fact, necessary that manufacturers now apply a tamper-resistant closure such that the package is sealed and place identification on that seal. The seal should not be readily reproduced and resist tampering.
The prior art has seals for containers comprising a laminate of a vapor impervious metal layer secured to a sealable layer which in contact with the container may be sealed thereto about the opening. It also will show printed messages on the seals to identify the seal, such printed messages being ink printed prior to adhesion of the seal to the container.
The prior art also provides a teaching of sealing a container with a removable seal which when placed into the cap of a container is pressed against a male die molded into the interior surface of the plastic cap such that the male die imparts into the seal material an embossed image but which remains in engagement with the cap as the seal is sealed onto the container, as by induction heating and upon subsequent removal of the cap, the male die will partially obliterate the embossed image unless a heavy gauge foil liner is used. The initial relative motion between the cap and a fixed seal formed of thin foils will cause torsion marks to show in the image area of the seal.
The present invention provides one method for complying with the new regulations as spelled out in amendments to Food and Drug Administration Rules, see 21 CFR 211; 314 and 700, requiring that the producer provide a seal which is a barrier to or indicator of entry and that has a distinctive design or logo. Due to the difficulty in resisting tampering with preprinted liner material, the fact that printing requires an extra step in the manufacture, added cost and discovery of an ink which will not act as an adhesive or transfer and is approved for use with food it has thus become necessary to define a practical method for applying the distinctive design or logo to each seal for the containers. The present invention has the objective of obtaining the indicia in the seal material by embossing the liner material and imparting graphics thereto which are not readily reproducible by anyone desiring to remove the original manufacturer's seal and reseal the container with a different seal.
The present invention provides an improved apparatus comprising embossing means for forming an embossment in the closure liner material to form indicia on the liner material which is separable from the material adhered in the cover of the container without damaging the indicia imparted to the seal.
The present invention provides an improved method whereby indicia may be imparted to a laminate structure to emboss indicia into one portion of the laminate structure while applying the laminate structure to the cap of the container.
The present invention has as a further object thereof the formation of a laminate closure liner material formed of a laminate of a deformable resilient absorbent liner material coated with a bonding material having low shear and release characteristics, in contact with a vapor barrier layer which barrier layer is adhered to a tough flexible thermoplastic material coated with a heat sealable layer for adherence to the container.
A further object of the present invention is the formation of a seal over the opening of a container which will seal the opening and will bear indicia which will identify the fact that the container has been sealed by the manufacturer and the seal will provide a tamper-resistant construction such that the consumer upon inspection of the seal, may identify that the seal has been tampered with or that the replaced seal does not bear indicia corresponding to the original indicia of the manufacturer.